Susan Banks
Susan Delilah Banks (formerly Black and Crumb) is a fictional character from the NBC soap opera, Days of Our Lives. She was played by Eileen Davidson from November 4, 1996 to April 8, 1998, and again in 2014. In 2018, Stacy Haiduk took over the role. Susan is the mother of Elvis "EJ DiMera", and once acted as Kristen DiMera 's doppelganger. Casting In November 2011, it was announced that Brynn Thayer would take over the role of Susan, since Davidson was committed to The Young and the Restless. Thayer made her appearance on December 7, 2011, but only the back of her head was seen. In June 2012, it was announced that Davidson would reprise the role of Kristen Blake, along with her doppelganger, Susan Banks. In July 2012, The Hollywood Reporter confirmed Davidson to reprise the role of Kristen Blake in October 2012. In January 2014, it was announced that Davidson would be returning to Days for three-month story arc after having departed with the show in November 2013. In late September 2014, it was announced that Davidson would reprise her role as Susan Banks; her first time portraying the character in 16 years. Davidson returned as Susan again for a number of shows in November 2017. On July 27, 2018 it was announced that Y&R alumni Stacy Haiduk would replace Eileen Davidson as Susan Banks making her first appearance on August 21 2018. Development While James E. Reilly created the character, Davidson was the driving force behind the character’s personality. “Susan was supposed to be insecure from a small town, not very worldly, basically kind of ignorant. She had an innocence. I based a lot of it on innocence, not necessarily ignorance. But she was very intelligent in a certain way. She was good at getting what she wanted.” Davidson would have a lot of input into all of the characters she portrayed, including wardrobe and hairstyles. Reilly added Susan's obsession with Elvis Presley. On Susan’s voice, Davidson states: "For the voice, I just went up a couple of octaves and threw in a Southern accent. It was easy." Besides the characters Kristen and Susan Banks, Davidson would go on to play an assortment of Susan's family members: Sister Mary Moira (a nun), Thomas Banks, and Penelope Kent. Storylines |-|1996–98= In August 1996, Kristen is hospitalized after an explosion kills her mother and she miscarries her child. Stefano soon reappears in Salem and hires Kristen's lookalike Susan Banks to carry a child that Kristen would raise as her and John's. With the help of her father and Peter, Kristen fakes her pregnancy. When Susan goes into labor, Kristen disguised as a nurse is forced to watch as John marries Susan, believing she is really Kristen. Kristen gets custody of the child long enough to name him John Black, Jr. and Susan soon returns to claim her child and husband. Kristen enlists Vivian Alamain (Louise Sorel) and Ivan in keeping Susan locked in a secret room but Marlena puts the pieces together and Kristen is forced to lock her away. When Susan discovers the truth, sick of Kristen's manipulations she locks Kristen inside the room and attempts to marry John until Laura Horton (Jamie Lyn Bauer) confronts her at the wedding. After being rejected by John due to her scheming, Kristen's failed attempt to kill Marlena lands her in jail. After being released on bail, she attempts suicide after hearing about John and Marlena's engagement. She then reveals Marlena's presumed dead husband, Roman Brady (now Josh Taylor); John and Kristen then pretend to marry to keep Roman becoming suspicious. When John and Stefano ruin her attempt to get back Susan's son, Elvis (aka John, Jr.), she reveals that Roman and Marlena have been seeing one another. Kristen's attempt to force Susan into giving the child back ends with the death of Susan's identical sister, Penelope Kent. Fearing she'll be charged with murder, Kristen pretends to be Susan and is forced to marry Susan's boyfriend, Edmund Crumb (Adam Caine). In the meantime, "Susan" and Edmund go on a honeymoon and Laura is arrested for Kristen's murder. Edmund admits to Kristen's "murder" and they soon run into the real Susan who explains that Kristen sold her into a harem; it is then revealed that the dead person was Susan's other sibling, Penelope Kent. To get revenge against Kristen, Susan exchanges her freedom for Kristen to be sold to the harem. |-|2011= In December 2011, Bo (Peter Reckell) and Hope (Kristian Alfonso) come across an ornament owned by Alice Horton. Tucked inside it they find a letter written by Susan asking Alice for help with Elvis who was sick and needed a doctor. The letter is to be extended to Stefano. Bo finds Susan's phone number in England and Hope decides to call her. Hope inquires as to the significance of the letter to Susan (Brynn Thayer) who becomes nervous that Elvis is in trouble. Susan inadvertently reveals that Alice helped Elvis, and Stefano visited her after Elvis was better. Realizing that she's said too much, Susan pretends that the phone line has a bad connection and hangs up. |-|2014= Susan turns up on the DiMera Mansion doorstep. She's come to visit EJ. She's had a premonition that he's in grave danger. She attempts to convince him to return to England with her. Susan also doesn't think that Sami (Alison Sweeney) is the right woman for him to be with; she sees her as nothing but trouble. She reveals why she allowed Stefano, who she says is evil, to raise him: she and Edmund couldn't provide the life that he could. Susan refers to EJ as her "first born," suggesting that she's had more children after him. Susan is left alone in the mansion and decides to pay John a visit in the hospital. She goes to open the door to leave and is greeted by Kristen who is standing there. The two trade barbs; Susan rushes out after Kristen gets Stefano on the phone. Susan visits an unconscious John in the hospital. She talks about their almost wedding and before going, leaves a photo from the nuptials. |-|2017-19= The hunt for Will Horton (Chandler Massey) leads Sami Brady, John Black and Marlena Evans to a house in Memphis occupied by Roger Fisher (John Enos III), an Elvis impersonator, and Susan Banks. While toting a rifle and standing in a bedroom whose walls are adorned with the initials "EJ", Susan reveals that she paid Dr. Wilhelm Rolf to revive Will as part of a revenge plot against Sami. Susan holds Sami responsible for EJ DiMera's death; it's caused her to spiral out of control as well as ended her marriage to Edmund Crumb. Susan is adamant that Rolf's revival didn't work. However, Will, identifying himself as EJ, is found alive and working in a bar in Memphis. Friends and family try desperately to convince him that he's been brainwashed by his "mother" Susan and to return to Salem. When Roger confirms that Susan isn't Will's biological mother, Susan suffers a mental breakdown and is hospitalized. Will decides to return to Salem to learn about his former life. Will keeps tabs on Susan's progress through Roger, learning that she's been institutionalized and that on New Year's Eve she's suffered a relapse after receiving a visitor in her hospital room. Months later, a recovered Susan (Stacy Haiduk) arrives back in Salem on Will's doorstep to make amends. She also turns up at Marlena's bachelorette party and manages to invite herself to Marlena and John Black's upcoming wedding. Susan mentions to Marlena that she was visited by Kristen DiMera, who is very much alive, in the hospital. Marlena convinces Susan that Kristen is dead and that she was probably just hallucinating from the drugs that the hospital had administrated. Kristen catches Susan alone and forces her at knife-point to switch places with her so she can attend the wedding undetected. After the wedding, Susan stays with Victor Kiriakis (John Aniston) and Maggie Horton Kiriakis (Suzanne Rogers). She is determined to give the doll she made (an exact replica of Marlena) as a wedding gift to Marlena once she's recovered in the hospital. Susan reveals that she used her own hair for the doll. Susan has a premonition that EJ is still alive. Sami tracks down a patient in a secret facility Kristen has been running with Dr. Rolf in Nashville and rescues him, but not before he's severely burned. Sami uses the hair on Susan's Marlena doll as a DNA sample to find out if the man she rescued in the facility is really EJ without telling Susan. In an effort to get her out of his house, Victor tells Susan that Sami has her son. Susan discovers a bandaged man in the hospital along with the DNA test results confirming that he is indeed her son. She confronts Sami wielding a scalpel. Sami convinces Susan to agree to allow her to take EJ to Italy to a renowned clinic for burn victims. She tells Susan that she can visit. After being double-crossed by Xander Kiriakis (Paul Telfer), Kristen, who has returned to Salem as Nicole Walker (Arianne Zucker), decides to disguise herself, once again, as Susan. Unbeknownst to Kristen, the real Susan is back in town. Susan later bumps into Kristen, still in her disguise, and pulls a gun on her. Kristen manages to convince her that she is her sister, Sister Mary Moira. Susan is later tied up by Kristen disguised as Nicole at John and Marlena's wedding anniversary party. After Kristen is unmasked in front of a roomful of guests, Susan, who's managed to untie herself, rescues Marlena from Kristen who is holding her at gunpoint. Gallery Elvis Stefano, Susan, and EJ.jpeg Susan's 2017 Return.GIF Susan holding Elvis.JPG Susan 1990s.JPG Susan touches Edmund's nose.JPG Susan Kristen 2014.JPG Susan screaming.JPG Susan 2014.PNG Edmund kisses Susan's cheek.JPG Susan touches Edmund's nose.JPG Susan marries Edmund.JPG Susan & Edmund.JPG Kristen John Susan.JPG Susan smiling.JPG Susan hugs Roger.GIF Susan with her "son".png Roger hugs Susan.png Roger comforts Susan.png Susan slaps Sami.jpeg|Susan slaps Sami Will Susan Roger Jarlena Paulson.png 9YjAP5.gif|Sami punches Susan Susan brings Will breakfast.jpeg EJ & Susan.jpeg Category:Days of our Lives characters Category:Females Category:Characters of the 1990s Category:Characters of the 2010s